A former Governor of Cross River state, Mr. Donald Duke said with the right circumstances, he will contest the 2019 presidential elections

Mr. Duke was speaking recently at the 3rd Mike Omotosho Annual Lecture titled, “Mellinials as Protagonists in Nation Building,”

“I will aspire for it. I don’t shy away from responsibility, only the right circumstance, I will aspire for presidency of this country. I have what it takes to be president of this country.

 

“I hear young people say to me that why would there spend hours queuing and casting their votes when at the end their votes won’t count. And I tell that if their parents conceived them they never gave up on them considering the high mortality rate so why would there not take a chance in building this nation?

 

“We had young leadership at one stage or the other. Even in our first republic, besides the likes of Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa, M. T. Mbu was in his twenties when he became a minister.

 

“Gowon was 30 when he became the head of state. It comes back to the disaster therein because most of them didn’t have experience in governance, which led us into war. We need the combination of both.

 

“What I think we should be doing is to a government that is youth friendly to provide opportunities because we need to groom the next set of leadership,” Mr. Duke said.

 

According to Duke, the major challenge faced in Nigeria today was the disconnection between government and the people.

 

“I think we should stop to deceive ourselves here and stop all these political correctness. There is disconnecting between the president and even the ministers,” he said.

 

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